


A Little More in the Closet Than Out of it

by buoyantsaturn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: First Kiss, Hide-and-seek, M/M, Pre-Relationship, as in swears that are used a little bit, this is a warning for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 13:18:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9073579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: The only thing they could do to keep Harley in the infirmary so they could keep him monitored was to keep him entertained, and somehow, Will had gotten himself roped into a game of hide and seek.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i got??? such nice comments on the last few things i posted??? thank u so much??? i hope u like this too

The only thing they could do to keep Harley in the infirmary so they could keep him monitored was to keep him entertained. Austin had already played him all of his favorite songs on three different instruments, and Kayla had given him at least five different smiley-face glove-balloons. He was starting to get particularly antsy when Nyssa convinced a few Apollo kids to play games with her and Harley, including hide and seek.

Somehow, Will had gotten himself roped into the game, one game, _ and one game only, I’ve still got patients to look  after _ _._ There were only a few rules: no leaving the infirmary, no hiding in rooms where someone was being treated, and Harley was to be accompanied by Nyssa when he was seeking. 

As soon as the game started, Will jumped right across the hall into a supply closet, figuring he’d be found almost immediately and would be able to get back to his patients. However, before Harley had even finished counting to 100 - incredibly loudly, shouting every number to make sure everyone had heard him - Will heard a voice outside his closet.

“Have you seen Will around anywhere?” Nico’s voice sounded from a few feet away. 

Will cracked the door open, peeking out and seeing Nico hovering outside the first patient room. “Hey,” Will whisper-shouted down the hall, glancing at Harley’s room before continuing, “Nico, in here.”

He made sure Nico had seen him before quietly shutting the door, moving back in the closet.

When Nico pulled the door open, Will quickly pulled him inside, pulling the door shut as Nico cried, “Hey, what the hell!”

“Shh! We’re playing hide and seek.” Nico gave him an incredulous look that Will couldn’t really see in the dark, but he figured that’s what it was, going by the silence from the other boy. “For Harley, we have to keep him occupied.”

There was another short pause before Nico said, “Sure, okay.”

Harley had reached 90.

“So, did you need me for something?” Will asked.

“Yeah,” Nico answered, and Will could hear him shuffling around, before he heard something hit against one of the metal shelves along the wall. “Ow,  _ shit.” _

Will grabbed his arms, pulling him away from the shelves and an  _ awful _ lot closer to Will. “Shh! Careful, what happened?”

“I hit my _fricken_ _arm,_ what do you think?” Nico hissed, trying to pull his arms out of Will’s grasp, but only succeeded in getting Will closer to him. 

It wasn’t that Will could feel the injury, exactly, but he could kind of sense it. His hand rubbed over the part of Nico’s arm that was already starting to bruise, healing it as well as he could on his own. 

“Uh, thanks,” Nico mumbled, and Will’s eyes had adjusted just enough to the darkness that he could see Nico looking up at him. Will hadn’t realized that they were so close, hadn’t noticed that that was Nico’s  _ breath _ he could feel on his cheeks until Nico had surged up and was kissing him.

Will was too surprised to move at first, but as soon as he felt Nico start to fall back down from his toes, Will slipped his hands from Nico’s arms and grabbed his waist, keeping him close. Nico’s hands found Will’s shoulders with newfound courage, and Will’s arms wrapped completely around Nico, the two of them as close as possible as Will deepened the kiss. 

They hadn’t heard Harley’s cry of _“ONE HUNDRED!”_ or the door to the closet gliding open, too enraptured in each other to pay attention to anything else.

“Boy are you two lucky it wasn’t Harley that opened this door,” Nyssa’s voice came from the open doorway, and the two boys sprung apart, wide-eyed and panting. Will, luckily had jumped against a bare wall, but Nico had once again run into the metal shelves, however this time having hit the back of his head. Will winced in sympathy. 

“You were right, Harley, Will is right here in this supply closet,” Nyssa said after she’d turned back toward the young boy’s room. “Nope, no need to double check, I promise, he’s right there. Let’s go look for Austin and Kayla now.”

She left the door open a crack when she walked away, and just enough light filtered into the room for Will to see Nico rubbing the back of his head and pointedly  _ not _ looking at Will. 

Will pulled the other boy’s hand away, replacing it with his own and massaging his fingers into Nico’s hair. “Sorry,” Nico mumbled, and Will froze.

“Sorry?” Will repeated. “Sorry for what?”

Nico made a noise of distress.

“Sorry for  _ kissing me?”_ Will cried, probably louder than he should’ve. Nico tried to pull away. “No, no, nonono! Okay, we won’t talk about it, uh, you came here to see me for something, right?” 

Nico pulled Will’s fingers out of his hair, which, at this point, were really just pressing into the injured part of his skull, but he kept a firm grip on the other boy’s hand. 

“Jason said,” Nico muttered, then tried again a little louder, “Jason said if I didn’t ask you out before lunch, he’d do it for me.”

Will was stunned into silence again, and when Nico started to pull his hand away, Will said, “You know, you still haven’t actually asked me out yet.”

Nico covered up his face with his free hand. “No, don’t make me do it.”

“Nope, you have to, now.”

“No, I’m leaving, I don’t want to anymore.”

“No, you’re not!”

Nico ripped his hand out of Will’s grasp, but Will got his arms around Nico’s waist before the smaller boy could run. Will pressed a kiss to Nico’s cheek before saying, “Okay, fine, you don’t have to, but I bet we could gross out Jason, if you wanted to.”

Nico stopped struggling.


	2. A Lot More in the Closet Than Out of it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the first chapter but from Nico's point of view, as requested

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the request, I hope you enjoy this one as much as the previous chapter! :)

Nico had to keep telling himself that everything was fine. It was fine, it was, except when it wasn’t. And it seemed like it wasn’t  _ all the time. _ He would be okay, more okay than usual, and then  _ something _ would happen. Usually, that something involved a certain son of Apollo, being all... _ there. _ Existing. It was ruining Nico’s day. (Except that it wasn’t, really.)

Nico never tried to actively seek out Will Solace, but it sure seemed like he did, sometimes. He would be off  _ minding his own business, _ walking to the arena or sitting by himself in the pavilion, and Will would  _ be there. _ Why did it seem like he was always right there wherever Nico was? And why did Nico always have to get caught  _ staring  _ at him? He tried to play it off like he wasn’t staring (even though he really, really was, though he might say  _ admiring _ instead of  _ staring _ because it seemed a little less creepy) but it was like Will  _ knew _ that Nico was looking at him, like he had some kind of Nico-specific radar that told him when Nico was watching him so that he could stare back at him and smile and wave.

And with each smile and wave, Nico felt this weird buzzing in his stomach, like butterflies, and he knew his cheeks were heating up - probably pretty visibly, too,  _ damn _ his pale skin. So whenever this started to happen, he would remove himself from the situation as fast as possible, retreating to his cabin to give himself time to cool off.

Gods, he hated this feeling, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to hate Will Solace.

 

Really, it shouldn’t have taken anyone so long to figure out what was happening, but Jason seemed to be the first to notice Nico’s seemingly sudden change of mood. He cornered Nico at lunch one day, dropping onto the bench next to him at the Hades table, slinging an arm around his shoulders. 

“You seem grumpier than usual,” Jason commented, tightening his arm around Nico as he felt the other trying to squirm away. “Got anything to do with Mr. Sunshine over there?”

Nico’s cheeks started growing pink, like they always seemed to do whenever he was in the pavilion. He elbowed at Jason’s side to try and get him to move, but to no avail. “Leave me alone, Jason.”

“C’mon, Neeks, can’t I try to help you out?” Jason continued. “I think you should ask him out.”

“I think you should mind your own business,” Nico grumbled.

Jason shrugged. “I could always ask him out for you if you want.”

Nico glared up at him. “Don’t you  _ dare." _

“Alright, fine,” Jason said with a grin. “If you don’t ask him out before the campfire tonight, I’ll do it for you. Sound good?”

“No way in _ Hades-- _ ”

Jason rose from his seat, clapping Nico on the back. “Great! See you at the campfire, then!”

 

Nico waited a while after lunch before gaining enough courage to enter the infirmary. He was expecting a lot of loud noises and Apollo campers scurrying around like mice - like it had been when Will had forced him to stay there for those three days after the war - but the infirmary was mostly quiet. 

He stepped up to the doorway of one of the rooms, seeing an Apollo camper he’d never learned the name of wrapping up an injured camper’s arm. “Have you seen Will around anywhere?” Nico asked quietly, afraid to disturb the peace.

“Hey,” Nico heard from down the hall. “Nico, in here.” He turned just in time to see a golden head of curls ducking away into...a supply closet?

Nico slowly made his way down the hall, opening the door with caution, as if expecting some kind of a trick from the other side, until a freckled hand wrapped itself around his wrist and pulled him side. “Hey, what the hell!” he shouted, hearing the door shut behind him and leaving the room to be swallowed by the darkness.

“Shh!” he heard beside him. He turned his head, eyes quickly adjusting to the dark, to see Will holding a finger up to his lips. “We’re playing hide and seek.” Nico raised an eyebrow at him, though he was sure Will couldn’t see him as well as Nico could see him. “For Harley, we have to keep him occupied,” Will continued.

“Sure, okay,” Nico muttered after a short pause. 

Outside the room, he heard a shout of “ _ 90!” _

“So, did you need me for something?” Will asked, seeming to be creeping slightly closer. 

“Yeah,” Nico breathed, heart suddenly hammering in his chest as he started to shuffle backwards, hoping to give himself more space in the tiny room. He must’ve slipped back too quickly, because his arm connected to one of the shelves along the wall, releasing a metallic banging sound. “Ow,  _ shit," _ he cried, clutching at his elbow.

Will reached out quickly, pulled Nico away from the shelves and a  _ lot _ closer to Will. “Shh! Careful, what happened?”

“I hit my  _ fricken arm, _ what do you think?” Nico hissed, attempting to tug his arm out of Will’s grasp, but Will only inched forward. Nico felt warm fingers tracing up his arm, pressing softly to his arm where he knew a bruise was going to start forming, and suddenly warm turned to cool, like an ice pack was being pressed to Nico’s skin. The pain eased away, but Will’s hold remained. “Uh, thanks,” Nico said, tilting his head up to meet Will’s eyes. 

He hadn’t realized they’d become so close. For the first time, Nico was thankful for the dark of the room, because otherwise, Will would’ve seen the pink growing on his cheeks once more. He noticed that, if they were the same height, the two would’ve been nose to nose, and Nico couldn’t help but rise up on his toes, the tip of his nose brushing against Will’s before their lips met in a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cut it a little shorter than the first one because i didn't want it to be too repetitive, but I hope you liked it!

**Author's Note:**

> again thank u all??? so much????


End file.
